Allentown tops $2 million in police overtime partly due to PPL Center arena.

Allentown really may be the city without limits — particularly when it comes to police overtime.

Last year, for only the second time in a decade, overtime expenses for the city's police department exceeded $2 million, of which $600,000 was over budget.

City and police officials say the money largely has been spent on maintaining a strong police presence in Center City. About 25 percent of the over-budget amount — $150,575 — was spent during events at the PPL Center, where police have manned street corners, directed traffic and kept a watchful eye on the venue since it opened in September.

That's about 7 percent of the $2 million, The Morning Call found in records obtained through a Right-to-Know request.

Much of the rest, Mayor Ed Pawlowski said, was spent on efforts throughout the city's downtown, where visitors to the many new restaurants, shops and attractions were reassured by having officers on the street.

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Bills show Allentown's police overtime did not begin to soar until the arena opened Sept. 12. As late as August, the city budget showed the department on track for spending in 2014, with $2,300 in savings expected.

Some members of Allentown City Council have questioned the downtown policing strategy, given the costs. Since overtime soared to $1.9 million in 2005, the department had been trying to rein in overtime spending.

Daryl Hendricks, a former Allentown police captain who is now on City Council, called the overtime spending "excessive." There's no doubt that perceptions have changed in Allentown as a result of the police presence in the city's downtown, but officials need to think about the staffing they used to accomplish that presence, he said.

Dismissing the criticism, Pawlowski said the numbers speak for themselves. Part One crimes, the most violent, were down 10 percent in 2014 over the previous year, and a big part of that reduction was because of targeted overtime spending, he said.

"Crime-focused deployment tactics have been effective," Pawlowski wrote in an email response to The Morning Call last week. "I support it."

The mayor concedes that the city's budget can't sustain the costs long term, and has suggested that downtown businesses should be footing part of the bill.

Allentown police Chief Joel Fitzgerald estimates that arena-related overtime spending will cost $400,000 to $500,000 in 2015, the venue's first full year.

Faced with the opening of the arena late last year, Allentown officials began to outline a plan to pay for the costs just a week before the venue's first event. At a news conference, flanked by emergency management officials, Pawlowski announced they would pay police on duty at arena events exclusively with overtime so that existing shifts across the city could be maintained.

Of that overtime, Global Spectrum, the arena's management company, reimburses the city only for officers stationed in the arena, typically two to four officers per event. The rest are paid by the city.

Allentown's solicitor and police top brass have refused to release the total number of officers who work each event, citing safety concerns. But records from Right-to-Know requests show the number of overtime payments disbursed for any given event.

In the first two months the arena was open, overtime payments were made to as many as 25 officers for single events including the Battle on Hamilton exhibition hockey game and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms' season home opener. By November and December, coverage for hockey events was scaled back. On average, 16 payments were made per game in November. In December, there were 13.

That staffing reduction has continued in 2015. No more than 12 payments were issued per game for January and the first half of February, and arena-specific overtime accounted for about $51,000.

Exactly where the overtime money spent outside the arena goes is unclear. In an email response to The Morning Call last week, Fitzgerald said arena spending is the largest single source of overtime, but the department also uses overtime in specific neighborhoods based on a study of crime patterns for a "proactive, preventive and educational" approach.

Pawlowski said police assign overtime on an "as-needed basis" for patrols, special events, narcotics enforcement, disrupting crime patterns and other investigations.

The majority of that activity is downtown, Pawlowski said. Asked to quantify how much of the $600,000 overage was spent downtown, Pawlowski said only that it was the majority.

"I do not need to analyze a mountain of printouts to determine that when it comes to [police service areas] or sections of the city … the majority of our police spending is there," he said.

Overtime figures for the department do not show the region of the city where money has been assigned and police won't disclose staffing numbers, citing safety reasons.

The Morning Call's Right-to-Know request sought arena-related overtime costs only for days when events were held in the venue. Asked if overtime is being paid to officers manning the arena zone on days when no events are being held, neither Pawlowski nor Fitzgerald would comment.

Allentown's $2 million price tag for overtime in 2014 comes as the police force is at record size.

One of the few times the department came close to that level of spending was in 2005, when overtime topped $1.9 million. That year, a generous pension payout prompted the mass exodus of 80 veteran officers, bringing the department total to 162 officers. Huge amounts of overtime shifts were needed to cover patrols and buoy the department.

Overtime also spiked to $2.1 million in 2009, according to budget documents prepared in 2014. But budget documents from the time put that figure closer to $1.8 million.

In contrast to years past, Allentown's Police Department is budgeted for 222 police officers in 2015 and $1.8 million in overtime spending. Last year, when the record overtime was accumulated, 216 officers were budgeted.

With 222 officers on staff, more could be assigned to patrols downtown rather than the department paying overtime, Hendricks said. Police also should be looking to minimize overtime spending in colder months when criminal activity drops, saving money for the rest of the year, he said. Instead, spending was higher in January and February than it was for those months last year, he said.

"There's no question it's our responsibility as a city to provide protection," Hendricks said. "But we have to look at more responsible ways to pay for it."

Last week, at a meeting of Allentown council's Public Safety Committee, Assistant Chief Keith Morris pointed squarely at PPL Center as the culprit, saying it was an "interesting" year. That prompted council President Ray O'Connell to call the spending a "runaway train."

In the wake of the discussion, O'Connell said he expects the department to rethink overtime costs not only in Center City but across the board. Each shift should be analyzed, he said.

"They've got to look at the manpower that's available, and they can go with what's available," O'Connell said. "Then they don't need to go to overtime officers."

While 2014's spending is in the books, there's plenty of time left to make adjustments for 2015, he said. The department has been warned, and council expects officials to be more cautious in the next 10 months, O'Connell said.

The 2014 police overtime overage can be covered by other funds in the police department budget, Pawlowski said, as there were enough savings last year to cover the spike.

The city also has $100,000 from the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority set aside for police coverage, as well as a $1.25 million contribution expected from the city's Parking Authority for police expenses in 2015.

Pawlowski couldn't promise the department would stay within budget for 2015.

"We're going to do our best," he said.

Pawlowski conceded that the current level of overtime spending will not be sustainable. The business community, which he said benefits from the additional patrols, should step up in paying for the expense.

Last week, Pawlowski met with Rob and Jim Brooks, owners of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, to discuss a possible $1 fee on tickets at PPL Center that could be used for public safety costs. If 700,000 to 800,000 people visit the arena in a year, that fee would go a long way, he said.

The brothers, Pawlowski said, promised to think about it. In the meantime, the mayor said he will approach other businesses about pitching in.

"You can't keep that same type of manpower usage up if we don't get some assistance," Pawlowski said. "We have to figure out a way that everyone can contribute."

O'Connell agreed.

"I'm with Pawlowski," he said. "We need to have the business community step up."